Partisan politics performed a job in exacerbating public well being challenges in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. A brand new examine means that partisan politics might additionally play a job in addressing these challenges – no less than in relation to getting individuals vaccinated.
A brand new examine discovered that on-line video commercials, during which Donald Trump urged individuals to get vaccinated, did result in a rise in vaccinations – notably in areas that had beforehand had low vaccination charges.
The examine, “Counter-stereotypical Messaging and Partisan Cues: Transferring the Needle on Vaccines in a Polarized U.S.,” was printed July 19 within the journal Science Advances. One of many examine co-authors, Steve Greene, is a professor of political science at NC State. We talked with Greene to study extra concerning the work.
The Summary: What was the query or problem you had been getting down to deal with with this examine?
Steve Greene: We had been hoping to make use of insights from our earlier work on masking – during which we used advertisements with Common (ret) Hugh Shelton to encourage masks use amongst NC residents – to see if we might encourage vaccine uptake amongst teams that had been lagging behind. By the point our examine was absolutely underneath approach, it had turn into clear that vaccine uptake had fallen prey to our traditional partisan polarization and that far too few Republicans had been getting vaccinated. We had been within the means of looking for people that may be more practical messengers (e.g., rural, white, middle-aged males) to make the vaccine pitch when Donald Trump made a sequence of very sturdy endorsements of the vaccine on Fox’s Maria Bartiromo present. We knew instantly that is what we needed to go along with.
We labored with knowledgeable videographer to create an advert utilizing footage of Trump’s vaccine pitch, which we felt can be particularly interesting for Trump supporters. The brief model: on condition that vaccine uptake was clearly being formed by partisan polarization, we needed to study whether or not we might use a really partisan messenger, Donald Trump, to successfully counteract this for no less than some individuals.
TA: Are you able to clarify the examine design to me?
Greene: We used our video as an advert on YouTube. Importantly, the primary six seconds of the advert, which no one can skip, actually say “Donald Trump is urging all Individuals to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine” after which Trump’s voice: “I might… I might suggest it” as a part of an area Fox affiliate information broadcast. That advert is right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INH-CmCgIYs.
We chosen roughly 2,000 counties from across the nation that had comparatively low vaccine uptake after which ran the YouTube advert in a randomly-selected half of these counties. Utilizing official authorities vaccine reporting, we might then monitor the quantity of vaccinations in counties that noticed the advert (our “experimental group”) versus counties that didn’t see the advert (our “management group”).
TA: What did you discover?
Greene: We discovered that counties that noticed the YouTube advertisements had notably larger ranges of vaccination in the course of the interval our advert marketing campaign was working, in line with CDC information. Our greatest estimates counsel that every county in our remedy group had roughly 100 extra vaccinations than they in any other case would have. Throughout 1,000 counties, that’s over 100,000 vaccinations. Notably, in comparison with many different public well being interventions, this gave the impression to be a unprecedented cost-effective means to realize extra vaccinations.
TA: How would you characterize this examine? Is it observational or experimental? It looks like an essential distinction, since observational research can’t present causation. I assume I’m questioning how assured you might be that the impact you noticed is because of the video, reasonably than to another trigger?
Greene: That is mainly arrange as a randomized management trial. Of the marginally greater than 2,000 counties, all chosen by the identical fundamental standards, every was randomly assigned to a management or remedy situation. There are a variety of difficult statistics concerned in our evaluation of the analysis information (full credit score to the very achieved economists on our group), and our statistical findings will not be as sturdy as excellent, however insofar as we predict we’ve an actual impact right here, it’s honest to causally attribute it to our intervention of exhibiting the Trump advert on YouTube.
TA: What do you suppose the take-away message is right here for public well being and well being communication?
Greene: We argue for the significance of embracing “counter-stereotypical messengers.” One doesn’t consider Donald Trump as the apparent selection for a pro-vaccine message, which presumably makes him all of the more practical as a messenger. Moreover, a variety of public well being messaging likes to keep away from politics and partisan battle, however we argue that the place partisanship is a part of the issue, it may also be a part of the answer.
However incorporating political partisanship into public well being messaging can pose some important challenges. Based mostly on our preliminary outcomes, we had a lot of discussions with social media firms and pharmaceutical firms about scaling up our strategy and dealing on a marketing campaign utilizing Donald Trump to advertise boosters (one thing that he publicly did). Sadly, with Donald Trump because the messenger, these organizations proved very hesitant to work with us on increasing this strategy. The place politics is a part of the issue, individuals have to not shrink back from politics as being a part of the answer.